, Columnist
Mueller Was Right to Defer to the Office of Legal Counsel
Don’t blame the special prosecutor for the office’s finding that the president is immune from criminal prosecution.
The setting matters.
Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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The Office of Legal Counsel can be seen as the Navy Seals of the U.S. Department of Justice. It consists of a relatively small, and quite powerful, group of lawyers who provide legal advice to the president and the Cabinet departments, often on the very hardest questions.
If the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security disagree about a legal issue, OLC, as it is called, might well be asked to settle their dispute.